


What Dreams May Come

by Angel Ascending (angel_in_ink)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caduceus is Having None Of This, Caleb Gets Charmed, Dreams and Nightmares, Fjord's Patron is Very Possesive, Just Enough Of The Sexy Times To Warrent The Rating, Mostly Written Before Episode 55, Multi, So Kinda Spoilers for Episode 54
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-21 16:10:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18144449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_in_ink/pseuds/Angel%20Ascending
Summary: They drift through town, searching, hunting for new minds, new dreams. Variety is the spice of life, after all, any shape-changer will tell you that. They have had several people under their thrall already, but what’s a few more?





	What Dreams May Come

They drift through town, searching, hunting for new minds, new dreams. Variety is the spice of life, after all, any shape-changer will tell you that. They have had several people under their thrall already, but what’s a few more?

***************

_The bed is big enough for three of them, and isn’t that a change from how things had been, back in their training days when they had pushed together their beds in the dark, back when they had muffled their cries with kisses and hands over each other’s mouths? This is not that, not their passionate and clumsy teenage fumblings in the dark. This is them grown and experienced, this is them no longer having to hide. Wulf is behind him, inside him, holding him, grounding and safety and surety. Astrid is in front of him, over him, licking the sweat from his chest, her clever hands touching him everywhere but where he wants her to, where he_ **_needs_ ** _her to._

_He whines and Wulf laughs, a dark chuckle in his ear. “Someone’s impatient.”_

_“Move,” he gasps, trying to grind against Wulf, but the man holds him fast. “Please. I need—“_

_“Oh, we know what you need,” Astrid purrs, and her hand brushes him_ **_there_ ** _just for a moment, not long enough, not nearly long enough. “But we need something too. Can you do something for us?”_

_“Anything,” he gasps. “Anything!”_

_“So eager to please,” Wulf whispers, mouthing at his throat, making him moan and shake. “Good. That’s good. We like eager.”_

_“It’s only a small thing,” Astrid says. “And it would make us so happy. And when we’re happy,” she strokes him once, long and slow, “_ **_everyone’s_ ** _happy.”_

Caleb wakes up, but the sensations of the dream refuse to fade. He still feels held and stroked and touched, he’s still painfully, achingly hard. He shifts uncomfortably, sitting up and looking around, Frumpkin making an irritable, unhappy sound as his comfort is disturbed. Caduceus next to him snores gently, his ears twitching ever so slightly, and Caleb wonders if he’s having a good dream. Fjord is asleep on Caduceus’s other side, his features untroubled by dark dreams.

 _Kill them_ , Caleb hears Wulf and Astrid whisper. _Kill them and we shall show you such pleasure._

Caleb nods slowly and brings his hands up, shadows gathering themselves around his fingers. It’ll be quick. It’ll be quick and then, oh and then—

Frumpkin looks Caleb in the eyes and hisses seconds before he swipes at Caleb’s arm, claws out.

The sensation of being touched, of being warm and safe and _loved_ fades under the sudden sharp pain of Frumpkin’s scratch, leaving Caleb shivering and cold and truly awake. The spell he had been preparing fails as he blinks in shock.

“What was I going to do?” He whispers in horror as he scoops Frumpkin up into his arms, holding him tightly. “You are a good cat. Best cat.”

Frumpkin purrs and rubs his face against Caleb’s, marking him with his scent. He is cat shaped, and every cat is very possessive of their person.

**************

_He’s on a ship, because of course he is, and there’s a storm, because there’s always a storm. He’s in the captain’s quarters, he has to be, to be laying in a bed big enough for three. He’s naked and Jester is leaning over him, all lacy undergarments and blue skin and dark freckles. Her tail traces patterns along his skin, a teasing agony of sensation._

_“Room for one more?” says a voice from the shadows, but over the sound of the wind and the waves and the creaking of the ship, Fjord can’t place it. The ship’s lantern that lights the room sways as Fjord tries to make out the figure. It could be Sabian. They had coupled once, an act fueled more by boredom than passion. It could be Caleb, all red hair and freckles and eyes smoldering like coals. For one moment he swears it’s Avantika and terror and arousal war in his gut as he makes a strangled sound._

_“Oh that’s interesting,” Jester says gleefully. “We could have fun with that.”_

_“We could, couldn’t we?” Avantika says as she steps from the shadows._

_Something wraps around him then, scaly and cold, and pulls him down through the bed, through the ship, into the dark water below. Fjord chokes as the water enters his lungs, as the coil around him wraps tighter, making his ribs creak like the timbers of a ship._

**_MINE._ **

_The roar brings pain with it, sudden and shocking and—_

Fjord wakes up coughing, unable to catch his breath for a long, terrifying moment before the feeling of drowning passes. He sits up, wincing as he rubs his temples, trying to soothe the headache that throbs along with the aching of his ribs.

A sound from his left catches his attention, a sniffle maybe. Fjord turns his head to see that Caleb is awake, his face buried in Frumpkin’s fur, blood oozing from what looks like a nasty cat scratch along one arm. “Caleb?” His throat burns as if he has swallowed the ocean, but still he speaks. “You all right?”

Caleb lifts his head, his eyes rimmed with red, as if he had indeed been crying. “Bad dreams,” he whispers, his voice sounding rough and raw as Fjord’s does. “You?”

“Yeah,” Fjord whispers back. He looks away, glancing over at Caduceus. At least one of them seems to be sleeping well.

************

_He’s back home in the Blooming Grove, and he has guests. Caduceus isn’t sure where his guests hail from, with their red skin and large, bat like wings, but he_ **_does_ ** _know that it’s hard to serve them tea when they are draped over either shoulder._

_“I have plenty of chairs,” Caduceus says pointedly. “I would prefer that you use them.”_

_“But you’re so much more comfortable,” the one on his left purrs in his ear._

_“And you’ve been alone for sooooo long,” the one on his right croons, their hand trailing down his chest. “We’re just being friendly. Don’t you want to be friends?” Their hand moves lower, down to his waist, reaching for—_

_Caduceus sets the teapot down and gently but firmly grabs the wandering hand. “Where I come from, friends respect each other’s boundaries. If you can’t do that, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”_

_“I think this one’s beyond us,” the one on his left says with a sigh._

_“Pity,” says the one on his right. “He’s so_ **_very_ ** _pretty.”_

Caduceus wakes up with a frown. He can’t abide rude people, not even in his dreams. He yawns, about to roll over and go back to sleep when the smell of blood and salt drifts into his nose. The moonlight that drifts into the stall is barely enough for him to see by, Caleb and Fjord turned into dark, hunched silhouettes. “Is everything all right?”

“Bad dreams,” both Caleb and Fjord say at once. He hears Frumpkin’s deep, rumbling purr in the darkness as he tries to comfort his human.

Caduceus hums thoughtfully. That had been happening a lot around here lately, people having strange dreams, coupled with fits of violence. And meat had been decomposing more quickly. That meant something….

“What about you, Caduceus?” Fjord asks, causing Caduceus to lose track of his thought. “Any weird dreams?”

“I don’t know about weird,” Caduceus says. “Mildly upsetting perhaps.” He tries to chase after the thought he had been having, but the smell of blood distracts him. “Is someone hurt?”

“Frumpkin scratched me,” Caleb said quietly. “It is nothing.”

Still, Caduceus leans over and places a hand on the wound, healing it in an instant. Frumpkin chirps and head butts Caduceus’s arm in an affectionate way. Caduceus knows Frumpkin would never harm Caleb without good reason, and he trusts the familiar’s intent, whatever it had been. “Does anyone want to talk about what they dreamt?”

“No,” both Caleb and Fjord say at the same time.

Caduceus nods in the dark. That’s fair. Already his memory of the dream is fading, as most of his dreams do upon waking. “Do we have enough time to get some more sleep before we go investigating again?”

“A few hours,” Caleb says. When he lays back down, he’s closer to Caduceus, not quite touching him, but close.

“I hope the girls are sleeping all right,” Fjord says a little anxiously. He too is close to touching Caduceus when he lays back down.

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Caduceus says with a yawn. “Dream well.”

When he wakes up again, both Caleb and Fjord are curled up against him, and Frumpkin is purring on Caduceus’s chest. Caduceus just smiles. He doesn’t mind being touched like this, not at all.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't 100% sure how to tag the relationships here because even though Caleb and Fjord *perceive* the sex demons as other people, at the end of the day the sex demons *aren't* those people, so idk. 
> 
> Also this was written before episode 55. Oh episode 55. We'll get to you. 
> 
> I'm angel-ascending on Tumblr and angel_in_ink on Twitter if y'all want to stop by and say hi!


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